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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Totally understandable that one would move to Scotland for a hot rugby player
So much love for this book for the story, the character, and the message!!
EROTICA: I have sometimes wondered what the classification differences are between steamy adult romance and erotica. There are different internet opinions about this out there and sometimes a book will find itself in one place instead of another in terms of category. To me, this book would be better shelved in Erotica. I think a third of it was spent on describing sex.
THE DOGS; NOT EXACTLY A SPOILER ALERT BUT REASSURANCE. I probably have mild PTSD about bully breed discrimination because of my background in animal rescue and my own experiences but I was exceedingly anxious that something terrible was going to happen to Lionel when Kayla took the dogs for walks without muzzles. It doesn’t. While the dogs suffer stress around Lachlan’s untreated addiction, nothing traumatic happens to the dogs from outside forces (like complaining neighbors) while Kayla is in Scotland.
WALKING A FINE LINE. I was surprised and a bit disappointed that this book didn’t use the opportunity to broach Alanon for Lachlan’s loved ones and AA or NA for Lachlan. Millions of people have first-hand experience that their love cannot fix another person’s addiction issues. But 12 Step programs have offered help where none existed and there’s no pricey cost to it either.
BRINGING A DOG INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY IS NOT SO EASY. I know this book is a work of fiction but I think England (and I’m assuming therefore Scotland too) has really stringent rules around bringing pets into their country. There is a long quarantine period (at one time it was like six months) where the animal cannot join its family. This is the second book in the last few weeks where I’ve read about a character bringing a pet into Scotland like it’s a breeze.
THE DOGS; NOT EXACTLY A SPOILER ALERT BUT REASSURANCE. I probably have mild PTSD about bully breed discrimination because of my background in animal rescue and my own experiences but I was exceedingly anxious that something terrible was going to happen to Lionel when Kayla took the dogs for walks without muzzles. It doesn’t. While the dogs suffer stress around Lachlan’s untreated addiction, nothing traumatic happens to the dogs from outside forces (like complaining neighbors) while Kayla is in Scotland.
WALKING A FINE LINE. I was surprised and a bit disappointed that this book didn’t use the opportunity to broach Alanon for Lachlan’s loved ones and AA or NA for Lachlan. Millions of people have first-hand experience that their love cannot fix another person’s addiction issues. But 12 Step programs have offered help where none existed and there’s no pricey cost to it either.
BRINGING A DOG INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY IS NOT SO EASY. I know this book is a work of fiction but I think England (and I’m assuming therefore Scotland too) has really stringent rules around bringing pets into their country. There is a long quarantine period (at one time it was like six months) where the animal cannot join its family. This is the second book in the last few weeks where I’ve read about a character bringing a pet into Scotland like it’s a breeze.
Honestly it took me a while to get my head together to write a review because this book gutted me. I am officially putting angst in the shelf of 'never fucking read' along with books set in highschool or second chance romances.
This book sucked me in right away. It was hilarious, sweet, hot and a really fun read. Even the hint of angst had me flipping pages faster. (I guess spoilers but no real details ahead)Then BAM part two literally broke my heart over and over again. Again with the emotional empathy, I genuinely felt like my heart had been broken and I was the one going through all the angst in the book. (At this point I don't get how people read angst?? how do you deal with those emotions and then move on1!??!?). It took me a good long while to not feel like I'd been punched in the stomach, slapped in the face and had my heart ripped out (I'm not being melodramatic, I swear I actually felt like that).
All that being said it was a fantastic book - I think it hit me so hard because it was such a great story and great writing. The book was about 3/4 all happy times and fun love and the other 1/4 was gut wrenching.
All in all it was great - but it solidified why I can't do angst any more.
This book sucked me in right away. It was hilarious, sweet, hot and a really fun read. Even the hint of angst had me flipping pages faster. (I guess spoilers but no real details ahead)
All that being said it was a fantastic book - I think it hit me so hard because it was such a great story and great writing. The book was about 3/4 all happy times and fun love and the other 1/4 was gut wrenching.
All in all it was great - but it solidified why I can't do angst any more.
By far the best book of this series - companions novels? - because to me it felt like it was closer to reality than the previous two.
I really don't wanna say much about this book because I think this book should be felt through and through, just like I felt it.
I really don't wanna say much about this book because I think this book should be felt through and through, just like I felt it.
Originally posted on Three Little Birds Book Blog
Enter to win 1 of 5 ebook copies of The Play, just answer the question at the bottom of this post:
4.5 Stars
A love story that can rival any fairy tale. The Play is a gorgeously moving, sexy, and heartrending love story of two lonely souls who find love when they need it most.
The Play took me across the world to one of my most fantasized about locations, and I fell in love with one of my favorite kinds of men, a sensitive beast, and rooted for my favorite kind of heroine, a risk taker.
I love reading Karina Halle books because I know that I’ll be taken on a journey. Not only a journey to different locales, as her wandering soul loves to write about, but an emotional journey through the growth of dimensional characters. The Play lived up to those expectations and it it had something special as well, an all-encompassing love story that made me truly believe that I was a part of something destined to be. She’s written love stories before, and I’ve believed the connection between all her couples that I’ve read, but Lachlan and Kayla’s was a bar above the rest. They were incomplete pieces of one whole and only with that other person were they fully realized. Is that over the top? Maybe, but this love story was a level of epic that deserves grand statements, because their pull was almost a providence.
I’m sitting here, trying to write a good review but I can’t really get anything cohesive on paper because I wasn’t really wearing my ‘blogger’ hat while I was reading. I was just enjoying the story, and not paying attention to any pros or cons. This is a book that I lived while I was reading it. So here’s a list of everything that I loved:
Lachlan – boy, did I love him. I felt like this was really his story. From the opening scene that broke my heart to pieces, to the last when my heart was battered and bruised, but still beating, Lachlan stole the show. In fact, my heart was beating in his hands, because I’d given it to him. This bent (because he was too strong to be fully broken), romantic, earnest, brute with a heart of gold was everything I want in a romantic hero, and because of Karina Halle’s perfect character development, he was so honest and real that I kept hoping that I’d look up from the page and see him standing in front of me.
Kayla – Lachlan’s perfect counterpart, and her own courageous, brash, flawed, independent self. Kayla had all the traits that I love in a Halle heroine, but the one I loved most was her thirst for adventure and her nerve. Her willingness to take a chance on love and to take a chance on herself, her dreams, was inspirational and admirable. There’s a message that seeps through these contemporary romances of Halle’s and I’m getting it; it might just be time to take a leap of faith.
The story – though predictable at times, it’s simplicity conveyed it’s realness and emphasized the characters and their connection to one another. This was about falling in love, accepting your love, fighting for your love, and having faith in your love. With everything that happens in the plot, the focus is always on love, all kinds of love, and what’s better than that?
The balance – The Play was a great balance of tension, humor, sex, hope, and pain and the emotional ride never leveled off. I thought Halle’s writing was emotive but I could’ve done with a smidgen more angst and history to set of the intense bond that Lachlan and Kayla had after a pretty short period of time. Although, I won’t say it was an insta-love. The circumstances were too intense for it to be termed something so shallow, and the way things played out added to the raging quality of their chemistry. Each impetuous decision was so risky, which added to the strength of their connection.
The sex – holy Jesus! That’s all I’m saying.
Overall I just loved this romance. It’s one of my favorites by this author and one of the best ones I’ve read this year. If you love a love story then I know you’ll love this one.
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Enter to win 1 of 5 ebook copies of The Play, just answer the question at the bottom of this post:
4.5 Stars
A love story that can rival any fairy tale. The Play is a gorgeously moving, sexy, and heartrending love story of two lonely souls who find love when they need it most.
The Play took me across the world to one of my most fantasized about locations, and I fell in love with one of my favorite kinds of men, a sensitive beast, and rooted for my favorite kind of heroine, a risk taker.
I love reading Karina Halle books because I know that I’ll be taken on a journey. Not only a journey to different locales, as her wandering soul loves to write about, but an emotional journey through the growth of dimensional characters. The Play lived up to those expectations and it it had something special as well, an all-encompassing love story that made me truly believe that I was a part of something destined to be. She’s written love stories before, and I’ve believed the connection between all her couples that I’ve read, but Lachlan and Kayla’s was a bar above the rest. They were incomplete pieces of one whole and only with that other person were they fully realized. Is that over the top? Maybe, but this love story was a level of epic that deserves grand statements, because their pull was almost a providence.
I’m sitting here, trying to write a good review but I can’t really get anything cohesive on paper because I wasn’t really wearing my ‘blogger’ hat while I was reading. I was just enjoying the story, and not paying attention to any pros or cons. This is a book that I lived while I was reading it. So here’s a list of everything that I loved:
Lachlan – boy, did I love him. I felt like this was really his story. From the opening scene that broke my heart to pieces, to the last when my heart was battered and bruised, but still beating, Lachlan stole the show. In fact, my heart was beating in his hands, because I’d given it to him. This bent (because he was too strong to be fully broken), romantic, earnest, brute with a heart of gold was everything I want in a romantic hero, and because of Karina Halle’s perfect character development, he was so honest and real that I kept hoping that I’d look up from the page and see him standing in front of me.
Kayla – Lachlan’s perfect counterpart, and her own courageous, brash, flawed, independent self. Kayla had all the traits that I love in a Halle heroine, but the one I loved most was her thirst for adventure and her nerve. Her willingness to take a chance on love and to take a chance on herself, her dreams, was inspirational and admirable. There’s a message that seeps through these contemporary romances of Halle’s and I’m getting it; it might just be time to take a leap of faith.
The story – though predictable at times, it’s simplicity conveyed it’s realness and emphasized the characters and their connection to one another. This was about falling in love, accepting your love, fighting for your love, and having faith in your love. With everything that happens in the plot, the focus is always on love, all kinds of love, and what’s better than that?
The balance – The Play was a great balance of tension, humor, sex, hope, and pain and the emotional ride never leveled off. I thought Halle’s writing was emotive but I could’ve done with a smidgen more angst and history to set of the intense bond that Lachlan and Kayla had after a pretty short period of time. Although, I won’t say it was an insta-love. The circumstances were too intense for it to be termed something so shallow, and the way things played out added to the raging quality of their chemistry. Each impetuous decision was so risky, which added to the strength of their connection.
The sex – holy Jesus! That’s all I’m saying.
Overall I just loved this romance. It’s one of my favorites by this author and one of the best ones I’ve read this year. If you love a love story then I know you’ll love this one.
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dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked this book, but not as much as the first two. The characters were great and I enjoyed the story. The end of the book was super sad and hit home a little too closely. I can't wait to read the next book!